This invention relates to a (preferably hand-holdable) decorating tool suitable for providing a flowable surface-coating having a broken pattern. The broken pattern is sometimes called a "distressed" pattern. Typical fluid surface-coatings comprise wet paint (including so-called solid emulsion paint which can be made to flow under shear) varnish or painters' glaze. This document also discloses to a method for providing a flowable surface-coating having a broken pattern obtained by use of the tool.
Broken pattern surface-coatings were very popular in the 1930's. They were produced by such techniques as "ragging on" and "sponging" in which a rag or sponge was used to apply paint to produce the broken pattern or "ragging off" or "rag-rolling" where a wet coat of paint was applied to a surface and then the broken pattern was imparted by disturbing the paint by dabbing it with a rag or rolling a rolled up rag or piece of leather over the painted surface while the paint was still wet. Fuller descriptions of these techniques are provided in the books "Paint Magic" by Jocasta Innes and published in London by Frances Lincoln Publishers Limited in 1981 (see pages 42 to 45, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference) and "The Complete Book of Decorating Techniques" by Linda Gray and Jocasta Innes and published by Orbis of London in 1986 (see pages 106 to 109, 116 to 119 and 176 and 177, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference). These techniques require considerable skill to produce a pleasing effect and to enable the decorating operation to be completed before surface-coating dries and loses its flowability. Few non-specialist painters possess the necessary skill and so the techniques have been increasingly expensive to apply.